Super Junior Vol. 3 – ‘Sorry, Sorry’

Listen to it here.

Hmm, well I don’t know about you but I like it. I’ve never listened to an entire Suju album before so I wasn’t sure what to expect – but I’m impressed. It’s very good, imo, and there are some really outstanding songs on it. Mind you, I’m only on my second listen so I’m still processing the songs. Some of my current favourites are:

Monster – I love this song. I think it’s got the potential to end up on my ‘favourite song of all time list’. High on the list. I just keep replaying it – it’s just….it makes me feel. I’m not sure exactly what I’m feeling but it’s very powerful.

Why I Like You – it was the second song that really stood out to me on the album and it’s extremely pretty – a lovely mix of sweetness and melancholy. In addition, I am really falling in love with Yesung’s voice, particularly in his ‘Yeah!’ here.

What If – So sad. Really heartbreakingly beautiful. Since I don’t think ‘Monster’ can be counted as a ballad, this has got to be my favorite ballad on the album. It’s just very moving and pure and their voices are so clear and distinct here, it’s really impressive.

Dead at Heart – This song is fantastic. Second favourite ballad, for sure.

Reset – I love this song now. Seriously, it’s a really nice mid-tempo track with a chorus that I wouldn’t call catchy so much as memorable and a rap that I am particularly fond of. I don’t often say this but I think it’s really a shame that there weren’t more rap parts in the album because the few that are there are really good. And as a bonus, here’s the first live performance of the song on the Suju comeback special segment of Sukira on Friday – it’s very good!

Honourable Mention: Club No. 1 – Honestly I really like this song – but only until Lee YeonHee’s part. No offense to her but I seriously dislike her high-pitched singing and I don’t think it was at all necessary for the song. That said, it’s a really good song and I love the way Super Junior sing here – it’s very cool.

Now I’m a new Suju fan so I really can’t say much about how this stacks up with their other stuff – all I can say is that I really like the album and I’m quite impressed. Now I’ve got my eye on Version B…I’m still trying to figure out if I should preorder it or just wait for the inevitable repackage. It all depends on how my feelings progress as I listen to the album more. If I’m really crazy about it, I’ll most likely end up pre-ordering – there’s still a little time. On Yesasia, it won’t be released until the 16th so I’ve still got a few days to think about it. Btw, does anyone know if the price will raise when it’s released? Because if that’s the case, preordering is looking a lot more likely. I really don’t know.

Oh, and apparently it’s been officialy confirmed that the MV will be released on the 13th. So hopefully that means that by the time I get home manana, I’ll have both the MV and the comeback performance to watch. Yay. Something to get me through the day.

Maki

Up and Coming!

So since the boys are going on break, I’ve started paying attention to more people in an effort to find some folks to check out while they’re away. Here’s some of the people I’ve been keeping tabs on and my thoughts on them so far.

Album Review: IU, Lost and Found

So I’ve finally decided to get off of my lazy, procrastinating butt and write this mini-album review that I promised to do since I first heard the tracks from the cd. Since it’s a mini-album, I’ll post my overall thoughts and then do a track by track review because there really aren’t that many and it shouldn’t prove to be too difficult. Please keep in mind that this is solely my opinion – I do not profess to be a connoisseur of good music or to know that much about the technicalities of music in general so feel free to agree or disagree with any of my statements. In addition, I have only done one other album review and it wasn’t track by track so please excuse me if it’s lacking in any way. Nevertheless, I will try to keep the review as subjective as possible. Now onto the review!

IU Album Art

Lost and Found – Release Date: September 24th, 2008

SHINee Album Review [EDITED]

So while my mom monopolized the phone in my room and prevented me from using the net, I decided to finally sit down and write this album review. (I mean, I was listening to it anyway – I might as well.)

Now you should know that I’m no musician so my review is based solely on my own, personal experience of the cd and it’s probably a little biased since I’m writing it after having listened to it a gazillion times in the last seven days. And I’m not sick of it yet – wow. You can feel free to disagree with anything, I say – I mean, it’s really just my opinion but it’d be great if you’d give the cd a try at least.

Anyway, I’m now looking at the romanized lyrics that vicvickyrox posted on the SHInee community on LJ today (Credits to naver.com & PurpleSnow@wordpress) and all I have to say is I do not give Taemin enough credit! He really sings a lot. By the way, I know that quite a few songs on the cd are remakes but I don’t know which ones they are and I’d like to remain in my ignorance regarding that. Thanks for reading if you do!

So without further ado:

~Maki’s SHINee World Album Review~

Overall, I really liked this cd which is a little surprising since I’m not really one for ballads – usually when I’m listening to a cd for the first time, I skip over the slow songs and listen to them later on when I’ve got more time (or I just never listen to them…sorry Rihanna). However, I couldn’t really do that with this cd since it’s comprised mostly of those (and by ballads, I mean, love songs of a slower tempo). I know some people were disappointed that there weren’t more dance tracks (and in a way, I was too – I really wanted more songs to dance to) but I think the plan here was to showcase the vocal talent in the group and I think they really managed to do that. I mean, if they couldn’t sing, there was no way they would have pulled off all of those love songs (and there are a lot of love songs). One of the things I really liked about them though is that even though they’re love songs, they’re not really slow and dragging – they still manage to be quite upbeat, even the ones about heartache.

Now since I speak absolutely no Korean, I focused mainly on the sound of each song and then as I learnt each voice, the way their voices blended together and sounded on their own. I have to say that these boys harmonize really well together. I mean, the choruses were often my favourite part of the songs because of course, that’s when I got to hear them sing together and they always sound really good. I find Jonghyun and Key’s voices to be the most distinctive and so the easiest to pick out. Unfortunately, I’m still mixing up Taemin and Onew’s voices – I think it’s mainly because I can’t believe how mature Taemin sounds when he sings. And Minho has a lovely voice – I really don’t know why he doesn’t sing more. Speaking of, initially, I wasn’t keen on all of the rap in the songs but now I really like Minho and Key’s parts and I think that they really add something extra to the songs.

This is one of those rare albums where I listen to every song and the exception here is “Y Si Fuera Ella”. I know a lot of people like it and you’d think I would too considering how much I love Jonghyun’s voice but…I just think it’s boring. Sorry! I’m going to listen to it again though and see if I can hear what everyone else does – I mean, I really want to like it, I just don’t. You would think it’d be hard to pick out a favourite on a great album like this but I’ve managed to choose a few. Love’s Way, Romantic and Graze really stand out to me, Love’s Way in particular. Oy, Jonghyun’s voice in that song just kills me – they all sound really good though and I feel that it’s a really nice first album and a great way to enter the pop scene. I just hope I’m not the only one who sees it that way.

Ultimately, I’ll give it an A-. (Grade changed – see edit.)

edit from Sep. 10th:

So, I finally took another listen to ‘Y Si Fuera Ella’ and OMG, I love it! I don’t know what happened before – maybe it’s because I was so blown away by the rest of the album that I didn’t pay as much attention to this song as I should have but whoa, this song is really amazing. Last night when I listened to it again, it really blew me away. And I’m listening to it right now and ~replay~ing it non-stop. So yes, I take back what I said before – ‘Y Si Fuera Ella’ is a great song, it is not boring or soporific – it is lovely and it really allows Jonghyun to showcase his vocal ability so props to SME for giving him a solo. Yay, now I can honestly give SHINee World an A++.

Laters, Maki.